Chimney reconstruction on 17th century Suffield, Connecticut, home a massive project

SUFFIELD — When a chimney needs repair in a home built in 1691, not just any old mason can take on the task. So when Anne and William York’s huge center chimney collapsed in their historic Suffield home over the winter, they looked all over the region to find a skilled craftsman with experience in vintage masonry.

They found him in Jeremy Brown, owner of Hillcrest Masonry of Westminster, Mass. Brown and his two employees are spending a total of six to eight weeks to carefully rebuild the chimney of the Anthony Austin home in an effort to restore as much of the historical integrity as possible.

Anne York said they had never used any of the four fireplaces, or the original beehive oven, connected to the chimney in the 16 years since they bought the house. So when about half of the chimney’s interior partition collapsed in the middle of the night this past February, it seemed to come out of the blue.

The collapse left a large pile of bricks and a massive dust cloud in its wake. The Yorks did some research to find an appropriate mason, and came across Brown in an internet search.

"My husband conducted interviews (of masons)," Anne York said. "It was really important to us that they worked to preserve the historic integrity of the property."

Brown, a mason since 2000, said he began working as an apprentice to Richard Irons in 2008 to broaden his skill set in the struggling economy, learning preservation masonry work.

“It’s a rare specialty,” Brown said. “It’s a trade within a trade.”

Brown didn’t hesitate about taking the job at the Yorks’ home. He said he is willing to drive about two hours from Westminster, which is north of Worcester, to work on historic homes. He also does traditional, modern masonry, but doesn’t travel for those jobs.

“It’s just my personal interest,” he said of his willingness to travel for preservation work. “I try do do right by the original builders.”

Brown said as big of a job as the Yorks’ is, he has seen much bigger collapses. He said the amount of bricks that came down showed that the chimney had some prior problems before this incident.

Several aspects of the job make it time consuming. Brown and his crew will work to rebuild the chimney in the design and style it was originally built in, which takes more time than demolishing what’s left and starting anew.

He will also re-use any salvageable bricks, and even the clay mortar.

“Other masons would call these bricks junk and throw them in the landfill,” he said.

Brown is saving the salvageable chunks of mortar in five gallon plastic buckets. He’ll put it to reuse later.

“We’ll put it in a barrel with some water for about a week,” he said. “Then you can remix it and reuse it. It will be good for another couple hundred years.”

He also found another source of clay mortar, in the Yorks’ yard of all places. The clay was discovered one day early in the job when Brown’s truck got stuck in thick muck in the backyard, which they soon figured out was clay.

“We’ll be doing some excavating,” he said. “We’ll be sourcing it as local material. It doesn’t get any more local than that.”

Brown and his crew are rebuilding the chimney brick by brick, incorporating modern materials where necessary and making sure to meet modern building codes. Terra cotta flue tiles will be installed as a liner. Brown will reuse the chimney’s old bricks in all visible parts of the chimney. Portions that are behind walls will have modern bricks to save costs, rather than having him try to find historic bricks that will match the ones in the home.

From the roof up, reproduction waterstruck brick, made in Maine, will be used, with period details and period mortar.

“It’s made to look like old brick,” Brown said. “Reusing old brick from the roof up isn’t wise. Typically, bricks that are 300 years old have seen their day, and you will have brick failure.”

Brown said he and his crew are challenged with keeping the masonry dust at bay, while the York family lives in the house. They’re also working in tight spaces. Much of the work is done from inside the chimney itself.

Brown will also repair the beehive oven, which needs some repointing and other work, and show York how to use it.

“I’m looking forward to making pies and pizzas in it,” she said.

York said she and her husband did not set out to purchase an historic home, but she and her husband are adamant about keeping the historic integrity of the home intact.

“We’ve had lots of people come through with suggestions for how to renovate the house,” Anne York said. “One suggested putting skylights in.”

York said it’s important to preserve history.

“We see ourselves as guardians of the house, not just residents,” she said. “I just want to stay true to the spirit of the house.”